Guardians of the Prince

Chapter 14

I was looking over some documents for my job with the prince beside me, diligently going over his lessons, when I heard Mr Lahzt’s voice.

“The Public Royals Campaign?”

I lifted my face, to see Mr Lahzt flipping through the documents I’d finished reading and set aside on the desk.

This was the study Mr Lahzt used as a schoolroom for the prince’s lessons. Mr Lahzt was here quite a bit of the time, so it had sort of become Mr Lahzt’s private room as well. He did have a separate room of his own, but still.

“Yeah, it starts next month. It’s a campaign to let the public know more about the royal family,” I explained. “They’re putting together guided tours of places in the royal palace that aren’t usually open to the public, and having ordinary folks take part in some of the guards’ training exercises, and there’s going to be a garden party where they’ll serve some of the royal family’s secret recipes, stuff like that. We’re even thinking about having a few events at Shiz Cagna.”

The prince had been the center of Shiz Cagna ever since he’d come here.

The people of the town under the palace’s auspices, the town that spread under the hill on which Shiz Cagna was built, were proud of him, and some of them had even taken to calling it The Prince’s Castle.

I absolutely wanted to invite some of them in.

I’d been overwhelmed with work when I’d first started my job here, but they’d given me a lot of space to get used to things.

A whole year had passed since then. It was now perfectly routine to wake up in the morning, loosely tie up all my hair, which had grown quite long, and put on the brimless bonnet that was part of the nanny uniform.

I wanted to actively participate in this event, and make it fun.

The person in charge, Mr Taval, was going to put on a public lecture in the museum that was inside Shiz Cagna, and the chef, Mr Gaen, seemed to be dreaming up something delicious.

I consulted with Lady Solamire, and thought it would be nice if there could be some kind of exchange between the prince and the common folk, but…

“Oh, Professor Lemonina did say she was participating in something, this must’ve been what she was talking about?”

“Ms Lemonina, really?”

“I think she’s responsible for one of the public lectures in the museum. Lord Fatido said he would absolutely be here too.”

“Wow, seems like it’s going to be busy.”

As we were talking, the prince offered his writing assignment to Mr Lahzt and said, “I’m done!”

Ooh, little prince, good job writing those Ren (the phonetic script) so well! I remember the first time he’d written my name for me, it was so moving.

As for me, I could remember the Ren, but I wasn’t that great at writing them.

I learned the words of this world in my sleep when I’d first come here, but it was taking some time to get the seals themselves into my brain.

The prince and I were both taking a crash course.

“You wrote that well. Alright then, let’s call it a day.”

Heheh, Mr Lahzt still didn’t seem to be used to using polite language when he was speaking with the prince. Well, me neither.

“Thank you, Dr Lahzt. I’m gonna go play in the garden, Koume!”

We all left the study, and the prince immediately hopped into the garden. He seemed to always want to be on the move.

The maid Lauren rushed after him. “Lord Ouji, may I get you something to drink?”

She’s prepared a tea set on the terrace, so I figured I’d pour it today, and tied my apron strings.

Mr Kahzam, the guard, showed his face right then.

He was wearing the same black-collared uniform as always. He had a document in his hand, the same as me.

“Kohme, and Dr Lahzt, good. I need a word.”

Did he look a little bothered…?

“What’s going on?”

“I was looking over the guest list for the event next month just now, and…”

Security was Mr Kahzam’s job, after all. It seemed he’d been checking out the guests before they even arrived.

With that in mind, I peered over at the list, and looked at the spot Mr Kahzam was pointing.

Woah, that was Mr Idine’s name. That guy was coming?

He was down for the museum’s public lectures.

“Mr Idine is quite studious, isn’t he,” I said, and Mr Kahzam and Mr Lahzt both glanced at me.

“That’s a rather optimistic way of putting it.”

“Indeed it is. What are you going to do if he tries something again?”

“What? Nothing like that’ll happen. I’ll be so busy he won’t be able to get close to me anyway, so it’ll be fine, right?”

I’d probably be with the prince pretty much all day that day, so even if I was unlucky enough to run across Mr Idine, it’d only be in passing.

And anyway, it was only that I’d been careless with my Shin.

Although, Mr Kahzam and Mr Lahzt were clearly wary. “You’re very sweet in that way, Kohme. The problem is with him, not you. He can find a chink in our armor at a moment’s notice.”

“This won’t be his first time here, and he can use Shiino. Who knows what he’ll do.”

Jeez, don’t say such scary things, you guys…

I started to get worried, and Mr Kahzam put a hand on my shoulder to calm me down.

“Of course I’ll be keeping an eye out all day too. Honestly, I’d like to stick close to you the whole time, but I have work, so I won’t be able to do that. Please be careful, Kohme. Dr Lahzt, isn’t there some kind of precautionary measure you can take?”

“Not really, but…”

Mr Lahzt sank into thought for a while, and then lifted his face and spoke to me. “Kohme. Maybe we can put a Shin on your arm, for emergencies? So you can transform and escape.”

What!? I was finally going to get all fluffy and soft too!?

◇　◇　◇

And then the day finally came, part of the Public Royals Campaign, Shiz Cagna Public Admissions Day.

Huge numbers of people from the surrounding area visited, starting first thing in the morning, and it was as lively in Shiz Cagna as a festival.

The public admissions period was two days long. The first day, today, the museum visitor’s tour (led by the curator, Mr Taval), and Shiz Cagna interior tour (led by the curator’s wife, housekeeper and head maid Mrs Mirette) each ran once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

There were public training exercises and martial arts instructions from the guards, and even a mini concert given by a band employed by Shiz Cagna.

The dining room was kept open and light meals and snacks were provided.

The prince was accompanied by me and a guard (in turns), and he popped his head in at each of the various events.

Every time he greeted anyone who was participating, all the young girls lost their heads and let out a squeal. Man, it was like he was a pop idol.

I figured we’d head to the prince’s private rooms to have lunch, and when we started down the hallway, there was a cheer from the garden. “Oh, Professor ‘Nina and Morio are fighting.”

“What? A fight!?”

I was surprised, and when I saw the prince pointing, Ms Lemonina and Mr Kahzam were battling in earnest.

Visitors and even other guards had surrounded them, letting out cheers and urging them on.

Some of the visitors noticed us and raised their voices – “Oh, it’s the prince and his nanny!” – but…

I never heard of any event like this being scheduled!!

They were both carrying weird weapons. They were some sort of nun-chuck, like Bruce Lee or something. They were like the batons the guards normally carried, except instead of two sections, they had three.

Oh, was it possible Professor Lemonina, weapon nerd, had brought these with her?

Pardon me, dearest mother-in-law, but… Did you have permission to bring those here?

The two of them flew apart temporarily. Lemonina was panting for breath, but obviously fired up.

“This prey not to your tastes, Professor Kahzam?”

“Professor Lemonina… Where on earth did you find these things.”

Mr Kahzam kept his composure, but was a bit exasperated.

“In some old reference books. I had an acquaintance reconstruct them for me. Come on, Kohme’s watching, you know, you don’t wanna lose, do you?”

“Shit– Here I come!”

The two of them struck against each other again. I thought Lemonina was going to swing one side of her weapon around in a circle, but she deliberately hit it against the ground, making the movable portion of it leap up, and it flew at Mr Kahzam.

Mr Kahzam circled his own weapon around his body too, and brought it up from an unexpected direction.

It did look like fun.

Jeez… Both of them were completely loving it.

“Fo gor it! Fo gor it!”1

Little prince. You do not need to cheer them on.

“Koume, I’m gonna fight too! Just like Morio!”

You do not need to!